Thursday, November 24, 2011

I never thought I'd be cheering for what I used to know as a radical, Marxist student organization like Zengakuren (All-Japan Federation of Students' Self-Governing Associations, some info from wiki), but I am now.

Here's the video of the Kyoto University students who are the members of the Zengakuren, confronting Dr. Sentaro Takahashi, deputy director of the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute and protesting the public lecture that the Institute was hosting on October 1, 2011.

Dr. Takahashi was in charge of organizing the public lecture by Dr. Yoshiya Shimada of National Institute of Radiological Sciences, who is known for his claim that radiation exposure up to 100mSv/yr is safe. The students had been opposing the lecture, but Dr. Takahashi decided to go ahead and refused to let the students in.

The Kyoto University Zengakuren students are telling, in no uncertain terms, that holding the lecture in the name of Kyoto University is totally unacceptable, and they tell the deputy director why. They speak in a dialect of Osaka area (Kawachi dialect), which is as harsh as you can get in Japanese. Th dialect itself sounds angry to many people in Japan even in peace time, and the students are actually really very angry. But then they are the students attending Kyoto University, one of the most prestigious universities in Japan and known for academic rigor. They are angry, speak in rapid fire, and they remain logical, using precise terms when they talk about radiation exposure.

I posted this video on my Japanese blog sometime ago, and it became one of the most popular posts in my blog. Many who knew what Zengakuren used to be were pleasantly surprised. Those who didn't know were still surprised. Many living in Fukushima commented, thanking the students for standing up for them. One or two said they didn't approve of the rough words that they used against a senior figure.

Rough translation by me, captioning and a minor editing by Tokyo Brown Tabby (who eliminated the s--t word, as Tabby's youtube channel is "known for decorum", says Tabby). I just cannot do enough justice to the particular Japanese dialect that the students are using.

Some people are rather impressed with Dr. Takahashi also, who listened to the students and tried to speak with them in a polite language. It is also possible that he was shell-shocked.

17
comments:

I have many other Fukushima-related videos with English subtitles which haven't been posted on this blog. If you're interested, please subscribe to my channel!http://www.youtube.com/user/tokyobrowntabby

It it encouraging to see young Japanese getting angry and standing up but we need many, many MORE to do so. If no one stands up and gets angry nothing will change and the horror that is transpiring in Fukushima will simply continue to spread throughout Japan and the world.

Please people do not let Japan slip into the fallout abyss. A nation with such a rich and deep history cannot die such a horrific and sad death as this. It is simply unbelievable that a nation that was nuked twice 60 years ago has, this year, been nuked many times more. Japan, my beloved, country is now a nightmare horror that no one can see.

I have to admit that this whole event has driven me to the point of madness. I cannot even imagine the despair and pain of those living closer to the Fukushima site with no means of escape.

I see a very qualified and honorable student debating with an extremely corrupt Dr. Takahashi who, without using these words, is telling the students that agenda 21 depopulation will proceed as planned weather the students like it or not.

Good to see someone being loud and obnoxious in Japan. I had begun to think that it just does not matter.

However, I suspect that when some average Japanese person sees this, they will not think "hmm those students are loud/obnoxious but they have a point", but instead "Oh look, communists! They must be Koreans, no Japanese student is so ill-mannered! Why doesn't the government do anything about these nuisance people?"

I've just counted the pros and cons at the original Japanese video. Result: 52 pros and 15 cons.

Common "pros" comments: I'm moved to tears, This is how Japanese Men (nipppon-danji) should be, they are the light of hope, this kind of anger is necessary, they're representing the voice of Japanese people, high-spirited, etc. Most common: thank you, students!!!

This is a typical propaganda move, but these 'nippon-danji' see right thru it. Sadly, this propaganda is not aimed at them. It is supposed to allow ignorant and/or weak people to continue to believe that the gov't would never lie to them. They can think that Kyoto University wouldn't hire a fake scientist, so what Dr. Yoshiya Shimada says must be true.

Thank you both very much for posting and translating this video. I feel it's so powerful. It's very encouraging to see young Japanese people standing up and fighting against all the crazyness that is going on in Japan right now.

Zengakuren fought heroically, and lost, against the imposition of the US--Japan military alliance in 1960-61. Since the Japanese nuclear program, and the plant at Fukushima I, was a fruit of the postwar military and political alliance between the Japanese and US ruling classes, we have all the more reason to regret that Zengakuren did not succeed in their fight.

Thanks a lot for both of you Tokyo brown, and Primavera, I didn't know anything about Zengakuren, but they just ask the good questions, without answer..I think it's the same for many people in the fukushima's area, and that a shame, for japan government, and also for every people on earth, today, because it show us how our government will respond in the case of a nuclear major disaster.

I'm unfortunately responsible for a part of that disaster, as my coutry is the one of Areva, France, which bring the Mox to the entire world :(I deeply apologise to all japan's people; I'm really sorry that France country is so dumb about nuclear, and allow financial corporation to sold legally things which can turn in 24 000 years absolute deathly contaminated soil in a country .Sorry for my bad english .

I really think that now, if we want all of us, in the world, to be listenned, we should use every thing possible to be heard, including some illegal way, and that's boring me, as I have always trusted the laws.But now, we know that officials laws are made by also by corporations. And these corps are the ennemy, for the humankind.

Anonymous at 10:05 AM, thank you. It's good to hear from people like you.

I agree -- Japanese people need to get angry and act.

Until they do, some people will die from this.

In radical times, a person must be "radical" at least in some ways, or they will be ran over by the panicked stampede by everyone else who is trying to be "normal".

Rules work, work, work, until one fine day when they do not. How long has Japan been a pro-US capitalist state? Not even for a hundred years. How long has Japan existed? Depends on whether you believe in Izanagi and Izanami, but it's been settled by tens of thousands of years. How long will Japan last? We'll see. A decade?

In some way, pre-twentieth century people were smarter. They set up stones with clear warnings not to build.

yes, thank you for the translation. very interesting video. has there really been so little direct confrontation of authorities by japanese citizens that this exchange is unusual? is maintaining one's composure so highly valued, is the taboos against contradicting authority so strong, that people take no action while their neighbors and children and homeland are irretrievably poisoned? Sorry if that sounds a bit melodramatic, I guess the video got me riled up.

This was brilliant. I speak Japanese well enough to understand the ferocity of the dialect used and it was not intended to be polite. The TV (Talmud Vision) ought to allow these kinds of debates to be viewed by the general public and then we could see before our eyes that what is passed off as science in the mainstream media always has a political agenda. This is now clear with "global warming", the more scientific scrutiny, the clearer that is is a false premise to promote a political agenda. Same thing with vaccinations, and we could go down a long list of science that is fraud science being used for nefarious purposes.

The use of global warming by the nuclear industry is one of the most disgusting manipulations ever.

There are very few solutions to it. Most importantly, the military-industrial complex in the US needs to be shrunk to the size of the fly.

Number two, many people have to stop driving cars.

I have never had a car and I never will, and I live in the US. It'a conscious decision on my part, and even when I walk for 30 minutes to the next store or wait for the bus for an hour (thank you, US government and corporations, for building a wasteful infrastructure and de-funding public transportation while bailing out incompetent banks). I don't regret it.

By the way, I have a Ph.D. from one of the upper Ivies. I am also a female, which means that there are many places where it's hard to walk at night (thank you again, US government and corporations for not investing into side walks and adequate street lights).

But again -- it's worth not having a car and I will go to a more livable place soon, one in which at least some people understand the real meaning of responsibility.

"I am also a female, which means that there are many places where it's hard to walk at night..."You as a liberal have no one but yourself to blame, as you subscribe to the same ideas and policies which have stripped recognition of Christianity out of public institutions in the US. The corrupt and false philosophies which have replaced it, chief among them Darwinism, are directly responsible for your not being able to walk down a dark street at night without fear of some animal raping you.

Regarding your religion of global warming, keep it to yourself, and get a copy of some books on suppressed discoveries, inventions, and technologies. All our technological problems have solutions which have already been found. It is the proponents of your global warming religion which have suppressed them. Numerous free energy technologies have been found. Nuclear power plants were unnecessary. Keeping extremely radioactive spent fuel around is also unnecessary, as it can be rendered unradioactive by one of these suppressed technologies.

I find your argumentation laughable. But presumably you also think Thomas Friedman is a reasonable man.

Enjoy your technologies. Who developed them? The lovely US military. They will not let do of their vile nuclear sh*t any time soon, and they will keep on killing and irradiating civilians to get some more oil.

Radioactive spent fuel cannot be magically changed into something else. It's here to stay. People's action have consequences, and there is no endless growth. We only have one planet.

PS It is also people like you who are usually pro-nuclear until they get afraid when they realize it might happen to them.

Guess what? I did not need a Fukushima to make me opposed to nuclear power. I read about Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a eight-year-old, and that was sufficient for me. Never mind I had never met a single Japanese person until I was eighteen.

But of course, until conservative-liberal-libertarian capitalists figure out that they're not safe either, people like me and the Zengakuren are derided for being "anti-science", "anti-progress".

Just like people protesting the transport to Gorleben in Germany are handled by anti-terror police.

They get pepper-sprayed and beaten by batons for demanding safety for everyone, including the violent policemen's children.

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

About This Site

Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

Along with commentary on day's financial news, it also provides links to the sites with financial and economic news, market data, stock technical analysis, and other relevant information that could potentially affect the financial markets and beyond.

Disclaimer: None of the posts or links is meant to be a recommendation, advice or endorsement of any kind. The site is for information and entertainment purposes only.